Officers in the King's Royal Hussars sexually discriminated against a female warrant officer over her affair with one of their fellow officers, an industrial tribunal heard yesterday.

The major was removed from his post, sent on six weeks' leave and allowed to pick a key posting in the Directorate of Military Operations planning the war on Iraq.

WO2 Angela McConnell, despite having had to take time off for depression, was made to remain in the regiment for a further three months amid a storm of gossip over the affair.

He is to be allowed to resign with an immediate pension. She is expected to be dishonourably discharged and will lose the immediate pension she would have received after a further four years' service, the tribunal has been told.

On the day the major left the regiment, the commanding officer told all the other officers and NCOs that they were to continue to respect him because he was still a King's Royal Hussar and "the cohesion of the regiment" was all-important.

WO McConnell, 41, who was only attached to the regiment from the Adjutant-General's Corps, was given one day's leave before her new job. When she applied for four days' leave, it was refused.

One superior officer told her to "stop behaving like a Barbie doll", the Southampton tribunal heard.

WO McConnell told the hearing: "I was left feeling angry, powerless and isolated. I would sit in lay-bys on my way to work and cry."

WO McConnell claims she was coerced into a sexual relationship with the major. The affair was exposed by her husband George, a fireman, who found explicit text messages on her mobile phone and then put recording equipment in her car and their home.

She has admitted sexual relationships with two other cavalry officers as well as a fellow female soldier. The couple are now divorcing.

A husband found out about his soldier wife's affairs with two officers by bugging her car and mobile phone, an employment tribunal was told yesterday.

George McConnell, 37, said he bugged his wife's car after finding an explicit text message from one of the officers, a major in one of the elite cavalry regiments.

WO2 Angela McConnell, 41, from West Lulworth, Dorset, is claiming sexual discrimination because she was recommended for demotion or dismissal while the major was allowed to retire on an estimated £16,000-a-year pension.

She also claims sexual harassment by the major, saying he "pestered and stalked" her to have a sexual relationship with him.

Mr McConnell, a fireman, described confronting the major and another married officer, who is also under investigation over illicit sexual relations with WO2 McConnell.

His suspicions about her relationship with the major were first raised in March 2002 by a suggestive text message, apparently in response to one from WO McConnell, in which the major began: "I wish I could watch. . ."

WO McConnell pretended the text came from a female friend, but eventually admitted she had been investigated over an alleged kiss at a Christmas party in December 2002.

The next day, Mr McConnell telephoned the major and demanded to know how long he had been having an affair with his wife.

"He sounded flabbergasted," Mr McConnell said. "He was speaking high and fast. He said, 'I'm not having an affair with your wife and never have been.' I said, 'Well how long have you been sending her explicit text messages?'

"He said, 'You know what it's like. It's just a bit of fun.' I said, 'Well, if that's all it is, that's all it is, but it must stop here and now.' "He said, 'Yes. There wasn't anything in it anyway, George. It was just a bit of fun'."

Mr McConnell told the major that if he contacted his wife for anything other than work reasons, he would take the matter to Lt Col Tim Allen, commanding officer of the King's Royal Hussars.

The major replied: "Well, I'll tell you now, George, there was nothing going on and never has been. I won't ever contact your wife again."

Mr McConnell told him: "Don't be so stupid. She's the chief clerk, you're bound to have to contact her." The major said he would only contact her for work purposes. Mr McConnell replied: "Well, have a nice day."

He sent a number of text messages to the major from his wife's telephone but none of the replies was sexually explicit so he borrowed bugging equipment from a fellow fireman and placed a tape recorder in WO McConnell's car.

He subsequently monitored a conversation between his wife and the major, who had met her in a lay-by on Salisbury Plain close to an Army exercise area.

The major sat in her car, crying and declaring his love for her. They exchanged kisses. At one point, WO McConnell said: "I'll never get this off my knees." It subsequently emerged that this was a reference to the camouflage cream he was wearing.

The next day, Mr McConnell took the tape and the text messages to Lt Col Allen, who told him: "You do know that this man has previous, don't you?"

He asked Mr McConnell when the conversation took place. Mr McConnell said: "Yesterday." Lt Col Allen replied: "Bloody man was supposed to be on exercise."

Mr McConnell, who then confronted his wife with her affair, later used the bugging equipment to discover his wife's previous affair with another officer.

The couple, who have two children, are divorcing but Mr McConnell has been attending the tribunal every day to support his wife.

The tribunal was also told yesterday that the major persuaded one of his men to construct claims of sexual misconduct against WO McConnell.

At least one of the claims, used by the MoD in its defence, has already been investigated by the Army and found to be untrue, the panel was told.

A captain who was accused of having oral sex with WO McConnell at the Christmas party told the tribunal in Southampton that the major "organised a lie" to discredit her. One of the warrant officers in the major's squadron claimed that when he went to tell the captain his wife was waiting to collect him from the party, he found the captain and WO McConnell having oral sex.

But the captain told the tribunal that the allegation was fully investigated by the military police last year and found to be totally untrue. At the time, he was a staff sergeant. He would not have been promoted to captain if it were true.

Sgt David Bowsher told the tribunal that the captain was in fact drinking at the mess bar with him when his wife arrived to collect him from the party.

The major is expected to resign his commission once the tribunal is over. He will leave with the pension and a lump sum - possibly as much as £80,000.

I'm a flirt and a womaniser but no predator, says major
By Stewart Payne
(Filed: 18/02/2004)

A major accused of sexually harassing a soldier into having sex with him admitted yesterday that he was a "womaniser" but denied being a sexual predator.

The major, an officer in one of the Army's most elite cavalry regiments, admitted having had a number of affairs during his marriage but denied "stalking" WO2 Angela McConnell, 41.

He also denied "pestering" her with hundreds of sexually explicit telephone calls, telling an industrial tribunal that she was the one "pushing the buttons".

WO McConnell, of West Lulworth, Dorset, is claiming sexual harassment and discrimination because she was treated differently to the major when their affair was exposed. She was recommended for demotion or dismissal while he is being allowed to retire with a pension.

"I am not sexually predatory," the major told the Southampton tribunal. "I thoroughly enjoy the company of women. I am a flirt, but certainly not a predator. Sadly, it is sometimes difficult for me to live within the structures of society, the Army and marriage."

He and WO McConnell were "very similar people, very flirtatious", he said. "We enjoy the company of the opposite sex. In Angela, I met someone who was just the same as myself."

Their telephone conversations were "all consenting, flirtatious exchanges of confidences, silly flirting between two adults. We discussed sexual matters. We are both sexual people, we talked about our past and people we have been involved with."

He dismissed suggestions that WO McConnell had been intimidated by his rank. "She had a lack of deference which was appealing to me," he said. "She was never overawed by people of rank."

He admitted telling her he was a "fluffy bunny" who needed mothering. "I don't think much of myself and I do need constant reassurance. It leads me into situations where I seek it from women."

Asked about an alleged incident at a Christmas party in December 2001, in which he took her into the officers' mess Medals Room, he said she had caught his eye as she left the room to go to the lavatory.

He followed her out and met her as she came out of the ladies. He said he tried the door of the nearby Medals Room and found it unlocked. "I said, 'Just come in here'." WO McConnell did not hesitate, although she was "apprehensive" they might get caught.

"I was excited," he said. "It was the first time we had contact. We had talked about it, but this was the first time it happened. We were both very excited. I was surprised by the passion that we felt."

They had both kissed and fondled each other but everything that took place in the Medals Room was entirely consensual, the major told the tribunal.

The major admitted a number of other affairs but denied a series of claims made by WO McConnell of women with whom he had slept, including the Irish pop singer Andrea Corr, who has issued a statement denying the claim.

"I am prepared to be frank and to admit that I have had a number of extramarital relationships. However that does not, as Angela appears to be suggesting, make me a sexual harasser."

He denied a claim that he underwent counselling for sex addiction, saying he went to see a psychiatric consultant in 2001 but never followed up on future appointments.

He did admit an affair with a female staff sergeant called Annie which led to a previous investigation by the Army's Special Investigations Branch after she sent him a video of her having sex with her husband, another soldier.

He also confirmed a brief sexual relationship with another pupil at Downside, the Roman Catholic school, when he was 14. "This was purely adolescent experimentation which I did not enjoy," he said.

The major also admitted sleeping with WO McConnell's boss, Captain Dee Holdom, saying that she had entered his room in the mess with her dog, removed her dress and got into bed with him. They then had sex, he said.

"I am deeply ashamed by a situation which I should never allow to happen," he said. "Yet again, I had been weak and allowed my brain to be overruled."

Questioned about a "bets book" in which the officers of the King's Royal Hussars laid wagers with each other over who could seduce female members of the regiment, the major denied betting he could bed the regiment's equal opportunities officer.

This claim was an "outrageous suggestion", he said.

The whole affair had been "utterly humiliating", he said. His father had been a member of the King's Royal Hussars and he had grown up with most of its officers.

"I was devastated," he said. "I felt everything I had in my life had come to an end. Removal from command is the ultimate humiliation for an officer."

Surely if he is admitting to extra-marital relationships there should be no question- he must resign his commission and be dishonourably discharged?

That is what would happen to me if I was married and had an affair no?

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Depends. An officer I know had several fairly obvious extramarital affairs (one with the wife of one of his SNCOs) with several complaints made to the CO, not least from his wife. He was posted, got divorced and subsequently married again to a trophy wife (3 days after getting engaged it was common knowledge that he was having it off with a female officer). It's not as if he's anything special, just a blanket stacking type, but clearly coated in extra slippery Teflon.

The version I read of this, in the Daily Mail (The Sport was sold out okay), was that, while the KRH Major seems to be guilty as charged, the Female WO2 has had numerous admitted affairs with officers in the past and at least one lesbian affair.

It goes on to say that she is going to be, or has been, dismissed from the Army and will lose her pension.

The major also admitted sleeping with WO McConnell's boss, Captain Dee Holdom, saying that she had entered his room in the mess with her dog, removed her dress and got into bed with him. They then had sex, he said.

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I wonder if that is the Dee Holdom who refused to do Olderly Officer duties when 2 months pregnant. The consequence of which was that I ended up with 48 extras - long story.

Strikes me after reading all of this that if the MoD is so keen on getting in and keeping in (so to speak) the homosexual element of society, then surely a bit of hanky-panky.... ok, shagging... between the ranks is something of a lesser disciplinary affair. I certainly think it is. Putting to one side the wedded aspects of this particular case, if the true state of secrecy and subterfuge about sex in the various military branches were to be exposed, the issue which would be on every newspaper editor's nib would be how much masturbation goes on - a disgrace, when there's so much of the real thing available!